Letters to the editor: Construction in Mission, VA, the tea party, Congress and Obama

Cheers for Mission

My husband and I own Mission Fresh Fashion, a small boutique in downtown Mission. For those of you who have not driven down Johnson Drive lately, we are under construction.

We have been for a while and will be until mid to late fall. It has greatly affected all businesses in the Johnson Drive corridor.

We want to give a big thank you to the city of Mission. With Johnson Drive under construction, the city of Mission is sponsoring a weekly drawing to attract people to the small businesses affected by the construction.

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Twenty-nine businesses are participating. No purchase necessary to enter for a weekly $100 gift card redeemable at the participating businesses. The winner is chosen each Friday and the drawings will continue through the end of August.

You can find the list of participating businesses on the city’s website, www.missionks.org. So when you have a moment, swing on by, support small business and enter to win.

Three cheers for a city that gets the big picture!

Becky Hanf

Mission

Tea party, Old South

The cause behind the Civil War was not states’ rights. It was slavery.

The Confederate states were not only looking to maintain slavery within their borders, but to spread it to new states and territories so they could retain congressional control. They were also looking to be able to move and sell slaves between the North and the South.

The main value of slaves was no longer as a work force, but as a product to be sold (worth $3 trillion in today’s economy). The question at the time was not states’ rights, rather it was whether a state could secede from the Union.

Had slavery not occurred in the colonies, the question would never had come up. The “tea party” needs to quit conjuring up this old post-Civil War saw perpetrated by a defeated South to whitewash their evil heritage.

There is a difference between arguing for an amendment or legislation and the destruction of the entire Union.

John Nelles

Shawnee

Reality Congress

I think the U.S. Congress needs to quit being hypocritical by starting each session with a prayer. Members of Congress should do what the Taiwanese Parliament does — start the day with an old-fashion, good-morning fistfight and bloody nose tournament, and then carry on with the day’s lawmaking events.

Don Rinck Sr.

Mission

Working for veterans

I know a nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs who finds the whole corruption story at the VA difficult to even talk about. This person is very dedicated to the honor of serving the needs of our nation’s heroes.

She always thanks them for their service and despite a chronic health condition of her own, she often works through breaks and lunch hours to help a veteran get what he needs or wants.

Contrast this with the bureaucrats and presidential appointees at the VA who accept bribes and bonuses as a reward for illegal phony lists that deny veterans health care and dump them out back. There was a time in America when people like this would be rooted out and purged from public service.

But we no longer live in an America of responsible and accountable principles. America is now a place where the public servant is the master, and no matter what laws he breaks or how he treats our veterans, he is protected.

If we fail to punish those responsible for this scandal and others, we can expect much more of it. We have lost our moral compass because we have forgotten God, and the result will likely be more pain and injustice on a scale not seen in America before.

God bless America’s veterans, and God help the United States through this secular pluralistic nightmare to a time and place in which we begin to value the truth again.

Charley Morasch

Leawood

Give Obama credit

When Osama bin Laden was killed, Republicans gave credit to the Bush administration for laying the groundwork. Never mind that President George W. Bush stated that finding bin Laden wasn’t that important and his administration ended the task force looking for him.

Republicans have had hearing after hearing on Benghazi, stating President Barack Obama hasn’t done enough to bring those responsible to justice. Now that the terrorist responsible has been captured, the Republicans are questioning the timing of his capture.

First they say it’s just a distraction from what is happening in Iraq. Others say it is to boost Hillary Clinton’s stature while she is on her book tour.

When President Obama took office he pledged to find and bring bin Laden to justice. After the attacks in Benghazi, Obama made the same pledge about those responsible.

Obama did indeed do both of those things. But Republicans cannot bring themselves to give any credit where credit is due.

I never wanted to believe that elected Republican members of Congress would do everything in their power to make sure that the citizens in this country would be made to suffer for electing President Obama not once, but twice. But that is exactly what they have done.

Karen Lane

Overland Park

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